Harvard Business School, MBA Blog

Investment Banking Conundrum

Wow – this week just blew by.Between three cases / day (in class) and interview prep, I feel like the weekend-to-weekend time has shrunk to a very short dash in the timeline.(Like this: – )

I didn’t discuss it much before, but I did receive one of the relatively rare investment banking interviews this year.Towards the end of application panic a few weeks ago, I had a couple extra hours and decided to fire off my resume to some of the banks. After all, why not? Minimal time investment for a potential hedge in case my consulting + industry focus was completely misplaced. It’s a good news / bad news thing: do I take the interview (and invest time in preparing / networking?) or do I turn it down (and kick myself when I’m jobless this summer?)

At the moment, I’m leaning towards the latter — there’s just too much going on with the whole consulting case interview thing, and I think my chances are pretty low going in.Someone from the company called me the other day and asked me which executives I had talked with at the recruiting presentation – I had to awkwardly say that I was “out of town” during their presentation.“…but, honestly, I’m VERY interested in banking!”Yeah, I don’t think that will go over so well in the interview, either.

Investment Banking

I actually think I wouldn’t mind banking work (deal making, quant analysis, and fast decisions), but I have ZERO desire to work banking hours.Seriously, 90hr weeks?Midnight every night and on the weekends?That’s just not worth it – especially when you consider the limitations on upside due to current market conditions.Maybe, MAYBE if it were offering compensation in the $MM+ range, but as it is, it seems like the $ / hr payout just isn’t as high as other industries. Sure, you may make more money than your friends, but if an excel spreadsheet becomes permanently burned into your corneas, is it worth it?

Anyway, just finished the Training The Street seminar on Investment Banking Interviews and I give it a 3 / 10. I was super-impressed with their Financial Modeling course, but this one just seemed drawn-out and mostly obvious.